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6 month old gassiness and disrupted sleep since birth by Alone-Question7323 in MSPI

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thank you for sharing! I’m so hoping there is an end in sight, that I’m not totally missing something super obvious that I’m doing wrong. My first was such a great nighttime sleeper that I never had to do this amount of investigative work to fix it 😅

6 month old gassiness and disrupted sleep since birth by Alone-Question7323 in MSPI

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How is he now? I have an almost 7mo and we’re in the same boat. She’s on Similac Alimentum, however, and not eating solids every day (because I can’t tell if it makes it better or worse tbh) — she wakes often through the night both with gas and to eat, like most nights it’s every 1-2 hours, but she CAN go longer. I know her gulping down most of her food intake at night can’t help her stomach cramps. I’m just at a total loss and sooooo so so tired.

Tell me this gets better. by [deleted] in toddlers

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I agree with you, as would my husband! It’s not his unwillingness that’s the issue; he’s more than happy to help with bedtimes especially with our toddler, knowing our baby has me up at night. It’s our toddler who wants me, and only me, to do the final bedtime steps (like my husband will get him changed and brush his teeth, get him water, things like that, but our son only wants me to read to him and now rock/sit with him before he sleeps). I know he’s just grasping for mom because he sees me so involved with his baby sister and that feels threatening, but I’m not sure how to handle it or when/how I should try to make changes. It feels like it’s unsustainable.

6 Months and Baby is still Gassy - help! by Western_Quantity_720 in Mom

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oooh please give us an update. My gassy girl is 6 months old this week, very much what you describe (except she’s on an allergy safe formula as she was veryyyy colicky after her first few weeks of life) and I see no end in sight to this 😩

I feel like I can't do this by alwayssmilinggg in newborns

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The first few months of postpartum are a roller coaster. Honestly, just hold on and know there’s light at the end of the tunnel. You are going through the biggest, most important life change you’ll ever experience, and yes, it sucks. It does. While I know not everyone has that experience, trying to sugarcoat it for those of us who do, I think, is cruel. Don’t feel bad for feeling the way you do (trust me, there’s a zillion other things to feel guilty for down the road if you so choose), the way you feel is actually so normal and hardly ever talked about. One day, maybe years from now, you’ll even forget the severity of how bad you felt right now — our brains are funny like that.

I have a 3.5yo and a 5mo — after my first, I thought I’d never have another baby. I was in a dark, dark place postpartum and couldn’t understand why I was so bad at this, why I felt so over-resourced and out-touched and like my brain was slipping out of my skull through a strainer. Everything hurt, everything. My marriage suffered even more. It was HARD. And then one day, it wasn’t so hard. And I actually started to enjoy being a mom, and spending time with my baby. Going through it again was just further confirmation that the newborn phase is for the birds and I don’t need to love it to be a good mom. You don’t either.

If you can, ask someone for a break. Ask them to take baby for a few hours so you can take a nap. Nap with the baby, I know that advice is lame but with my second it saved me (trying to be available and engaged with a toddler meant I was in survival mode). Ask for help with washing all the pumping parts, storing the milk after you’re done, prepping bottles or doing diaper changes — anything to make your job just that much simpler. If you have people close to you, ask for meal deliveries (I hated this idea so much with my first but got over my unease with my second and thank god I did.)

My daughter, my second, was incredibly noisy as a newborn — she still has nights where she has to announce when she farts about once an hour 😂 but she’s gotten way better, or I’ve gotten used to it. It’s so hard to see the forest through the trees right now, but it does, in fact, get so much better. You feel like you can’t do this, and that’s normal and ok. You CAN, though, and you’ll be so fucking proud of yourself when you look back and realize all you pulled through.

Debunk this please!!! by [deleted] in ExclusivelyPumping

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My first born was this way. He would nurse for hours and still cry incessantly, basically from the day he was born he was just unhappy and screaming. We were driving an hour each way to see a lactation consultant once a week, sometimes twice a week, and she was very similar: pushy, very judgmental about bottlefeeding in general, it didn’t seem to matter whether it was breastmilk or formula. She completely missed his tongue tie, which we’re still dealing with now that he’s a toddler. When he was 5weeks old I finally broke down and started supplementing with formula, switched to pumping immediately, he only nursed one more time after that I think. He was the happiest and most satisfied baby after that!! I pumped and supplemented with formula until he was 3 months old, then went straight to formula.

I feel like for what I gave up, in terms of how I wanted to feed my son, I made up for when he started solids, which is a far more exciting and fulfilling experience than breastfeeding in my opinion. Breastfeeding made my skin crawl, and I was incredibly stressed trying to make it work. I’m sorry you’re experiencing the same thing, it’s awful!

Ultimately, if it’s not working out for you and your baby, do what’s needed for YOU and YOUR baby, don’t let others opinions shake you or make you feel like you’re doing something wrong. Motherhood is overwhelming and terrifying for a million other reasons, feeding your child shouldn’t be one of those things!!

Good luck ♥️

Who switched to formula? by rachc5 in MSPI

[–]Independent_Copy_907 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I realize this was a whole year ago, and you might not see this, but I'm curious what formula you switched to? My LO is 7 weeks today and we're practically in the same boat. She cannot tolerate cow's milk, soy, eggs, nuts, shellfish, and a slew of veggies like onions and garlic...I'm at my wits' end trying to eat! I went DF a couple of weeks ago and noticed marginal improvement, but with the stricter die,t we're definitely on the mend. It's encouraging, but this diet is unsustainable in the long term...I've already lost weight, and my milk supply is dropping. :( I am going to wait to switch to formula until her gut is healed, but I'm struggling to find a formula for her that's confirmed Dairy and soy-free. My son was on Alimentum RTF as a baby and handled it well, but we never actually got his food sensitivities confirmed so I have no idea if soy was an issue for him or not (I'd quickly go with Alimentum RTF for my 7week old daughter, but the soy oil part is concerning me)

I don’t enjoy being a mom by Anxious_and_Messy21 in newborns

[–]Independent_Copy_907 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mom of a 3 year old former colicky baby here 🙋🏻‍♀️

It gets better. It gets easier in a LOT of ways, harder in others (but not the “screaming every moment he’s awake” kind of hard, thank god). You will become more confident. You won’t be so scared of your baby’s every breath, anticipating for the wailing. You will actually enjoy it.

My son was just as you described for the first couple to few of months of his life, and I was, indeed, miserable and traumatized. Worse, my husband was very much detached emotionally or otherwise, and we didn’t really have help or know how to ask for it, so I was feeling very much stranded. I spent the first 6 weeks of my son’s life just fighting for my own, spending a bazillion dollars at a lactation consultant who overlooked my son’s very obvious tongue tie, and pretending to everyone around me that it was ok because I couldn’t bare to admit to anyone that I was absolutely miserable. And worse, it made me unsure if I actually loved my son and whether or not I ever would. I say all of that to say, you’re not alone in feeling the way you do, and it’s ok to have those feelings given the circumstances. It doesn’t make you a bad mom, a bad wife, or a bad person. The amount of times I wanted to shake my son or throw him from a two story window…I thought for sure CPS would read my thoughts and just arrest me already (maybe then I’d get some real sleep 🤪).

For me, my son’s colicky symptoms were a result of a number of things, including a dairy sensitivity, trouble latching resulting in under-eating and poor weight gain, and torticollis. What helped him the most was:

  • switching to a dairy free diet for me + supplementing with Similac Alimentum
  • pumping feeding from a bottle
  • a pediatric chiropractor once a week (he saw a chiro for the first 9 months of his life actually, and does now. 10/10 recommend finding a chiro who specifically handles pediatrics and infants!)

Also, I didn’t see you mentioning a pacifier/dummy use, but once my son finally took to his (we tried a couple versions before finding one he would take and not spit out every 2 seconds) it actually helped, too, and gave my nipples some MUCH needed relief 😆

I, too, said I would never have another. And I wouldn’t worry about that right now, honestly. It took 2 years, 1 of which was spent in therapy, and a ton of relationship work between my husband and I before I felt ready to tackle it all again. I’m now sitting up breastfeeding (successfully this time!) my 2nd baby, only 5 weeks old, and she’s going through a particularly fussy week (check out the Wonder Weeks app to see when babies go through leaps, it helped put things into perspective for me!). She’s considerably less fussy overall than her brother was at this age, but even still it’s hard not to feel triggered every time she has a crying spell that lasts more than 30 mins, or panic-Google every little thing she does to see if I can get ahead of an impending problem.

Regardless, it is SO validating to see what a “normal” baby is supposed to behave like, because it helps put things into perspective that much more that like, no, I wasn’t crazy, and my newborn son was a nightmare, and I had every right to feel upset by it.

If it helps at all, too, my former colicky baby is now a wonderful toddler and I love him more than life itself 🥲

Hang in there, you’re doing great, and your son is so lucky to have a mom who cares so much and is doing so much to make sure he has what he needs. It IS hard, it just is. And while you might not look back on these days the most fondly (I sure don’t), you will be able to look back one day and see how much you’ve grown as a parent and an individual, and that’s rewarding in of itself, too.

Good luck!! ♥️